For the purpose of observing the traffic on the road, it is now a general practice to set a panhead camera to monitor the traffic conditions; video signals obtained by shooting with the camera are sent over a communication line to a monitor set placed at a remote location, where the received video signal are played back to display the traffic conditions on a display. The watcher manipulates, while watching the display, an operating button or lever of a remote controller to send a control signal for changing the shooting direction (horizontal and vertical directions) of the monitor camera, or/and a control signal for changing the zoom amount of a zoom lens of the camera over the communication line to a control mechanism of the monitor camera to control it for changing its shooting direction and shooting condition (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Koukai publication No. 205775/99 (published on Jul. 30, 1999).
There is offered a service what is called video live through a panhead camera set on the roof of a high-rise building; a user accesses the camera from his personal computer via the Internet or similar communication network to occupy the camera for a predetermined time, receives shooting video signals of the camera by the personal computer to play back the video signals to provide a display their images on the display, and while watching the image on the display, the user operates the personal computer to remotely control the camera shooting direction or the zoom amount of the lens to enjoy seeing respective parts of a wide-range panoramic object.
It is possible for a parent to control a personal computer at his home or office to access a camera set up in kindergarten to play back video signal from the camera for display on the personal computer and to remotely control the shooting direction or zoom amount of the camera to observe his child's movements under various circumstances.
Further, when video signals from a security camera set up in a convenience store are played back to display the images on a display at a remote place, it is possible for a watchman to remotely control the shooting direction or zoom amount of the security camera while watching the images being displayed.
Such remote control of a camera to display video signals therefrom can be used for various purposes. In the prior art, the shooting direction of the camera itself is changed by mechanical control, or the control for mechanically moving the zoom lens is effected by a button (key) operation or level operation using a personal computer. Moreover, while one user remotely controls the camera, other users cannot controls the camera; that is, the camera is occupied by one user for a predetermined time, for instance.
Since the control for obtaining a desired image by a conventional remote image display scheme is remote control of the camera itself by operating a button (key) or lever, the operability of the camera is poorer than in the case of manually operating the camera in one's hand or on the panhead to obtain a desired image, that is, the image thus obtained becomes a little different from the desired one in some cases.
An object of the present invention is to provide a remote image display method that permits displaying a desired remote image in the same way a user directly operates the camera by his hand, and an image capturing device and method therefor, and an image capturing program.